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Which Side Do You Take?????

In Wisconsin, you can look at porn at school and get your teaching job back

By M.D. Kittle / January 21, 2014 / 262 Comments

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

UPDATE 4:50 p.m.

MADISON, Wis. – Here’s what Wisconsin’s legal system and its teachers unions have just taught the nation: If you’re a teacher and you get fired for looking at porn at work, you’ll get your job back.

Such is the case of Andrew Harris, former seventh-grade science teacher at Glacier Creek Middle School in the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District.

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FREE PORN: A Middleton-Cross Plains teacher,fired for viewing pornography at school has to be reinstated and he will receive nearly $200,000 in back pay, based on an arbitrator’s decision.
The district’s school board Monday voted in a special closed session to comply with an arbitrator’s 60-page order that demands Harris be reinstated. He was fired in 2010 after receiving and viewing multiple pornographic and sexually inappropriate images and videos, according to a complaint.

To add insult to the district’s injury, taxpayers will have to pay Harris nearly $200,000 in back pay. In total the district will spend nearly $1 million on the case, the brunt of which went to legally defending its position that the firing was fair.

The board opted to end its legal challenge and “move on” after the state Supreme Court last week declined to take up the district’s appeal of the arbitrator’s decision.

“We were disappointed they did not decide to hear the case, and we are disappointed the legal system played out the way it did,” district spokesman Perry Hibner told Wisconsin Reporter on Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, the district announced it has has offered Harris a position teaching the same subject and grade at Kromrey Middle School.

Superintendent Don Johnson in a press release said the district believes the offer meets the arbitrator’s ruling from February 2012 that the district must offer Harris his former position or a substantially equivalent position. Johnson and other administrators met with Middleton Education Association president Chris Bauman and their attorney early Tuesday afternoon.

Harris could not be reached for comment. Bauman did not respond to Wisconsin Reporter’s request for comment.

Harris will replace Eric Engel, who has accepted a position as a Dean of Students at Kromrey, according to Johnson. Harris is expected to report to school on Friday and will begin teaching students when second semester commences on Monday.

As the Wisconsin State Journal reported Tuesday morning:

Harris and now-retired teachers Mike Duren and Gregg Cramer were part of a grievance the MEA filed on behalf of seven district employees after a 2009 investigation revealed the employees had viewed or shared pornographic or sexually inappropriate images, jokes or videos on district computers. Harris was terminated, while the rest received suspensions ranging from three to 15 days or reprimands.

A complaint by a female teacher whom Harris had shown an image of a nude woman prompted the investigation, which determined 23 emails Harris received from his sister over several years violated the district’s acceptable use policy.

A subsequent districtwide investigation found other teachers viewed or shared inappropriate content.

The arbitrator said Harris had in effect been treated unfairly because he was fired for viewing and sharing inappropriate content while others were reprimanded or suspended. The district also will have to pay back pay to two litigants who were suspended.

Hibner said that’s like comparing jaywalking to murder. He said the district’s investigation found that Harris viewed pornographic material, while the others did not.

“I can’t remember which Supreme Court justice said, ‘I can’t define pornography, but I know it when I see it.’ That’s what this case was,” Hibner said. “These were pictures of women either doing or being shown doing inappropriate things. These weren’t cheerleaders posing for a calendar. This was stuff I would have been embarrassed to look at and to show anyone.”

Many parents in the district are asking why the district doesn’t legally have the authority to fire a seventh-grade teacher caught viewing porn in school.

Kim Henderson, past president of the Wisconsin Parent Teacher Association, said the association has no official statement on the case other than the PTA encourages districts to “find good quality teachers but always be concerned for the safety and appropriateness of what a teacher is doing in relation to the children in the school.”

Hibner said parents in the district are scratching their heads about a process and the union that defended Harris.

“A lot of people are wondering how? Why? Really? Is this really something as an organization they want to stand for?” the spokesman said. “My wife’s a teacher, so I understand they (the union) feel the need to defend their membership. I also hope they would understand why we would feel this isn’t the right decision.”

Its not his fault ,,he is attracted to whatever he was watching.
Just think what the world would be like if no one had self control. We could just follow our divining rod around and do whatever it tells us to do,,,and blame it on genetics.
Self control is a dying characteristic in the human genome. Some how its being bred out of us. Or may be its a spiritual problem,,,who knows.
Pete

Stan, In the first sentence you did not bold the words "Wisconsin legal system". It is always the unions fault isn't it? What about also blaming the 'activist" arbitor and the state supreme court who would not take the appeal

The arbitrator said Harris had in effect been treated unfairly because he was fired for viewing and sharing inappropriate content while others were reprimanded or suspended. The district also will have to pay back pay to two litigants who were suspended.

Looks to me like the school district would have been OK if all had been fired. Maybe you have read the 60 page order and can fill in the details?

Stan, In the first sentence you did not bold the words "Wisconsin legal system". It is always the unions fault isn't it? What about also blaming the 'activist" arbitor and the state supreme court who would not take the appeal

Looks to me like the school district would have been OK if all had been fired. Maybe you have read the 60 page order and can fill in the details?

The teachers union took it to court.
Not that hard to figure out, or is it?

The teachers union took it to court.
Not that hard to figure out, or is it?

In the can't win crowd the union takes members money and does nothing. When a does union take action the union is bad for defending a member. Isn't it what unions are supposed to do? Give me a break,Stan.

I agree with Pete about self-control. It seems that more folks are doing the 'if it feels good to me then I am going to do it' thing. And of course have no accountability when something goes wrong.

I don't know the districts policies to know whether or not the terminated teacher did something different than the others who were not terminated but I was raised to believe what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

What if all we have today is what we gave thanks for yesterday?

Let the views of others educate and inform you, but let your decisions be a product of your own conclusions. (Jim Rohn)

In the can't win crowd the union takes members money and does nothing. When a does union take action the union is bad for defending a member. Isn't it what unions are supposed to do? Give me a break,Stan.

You are OK with the Union defending a teacher caught watching and distributing pornagrphy on a school computer during school hours?
Really????

You are OK with the Union defending a teacher caught watching and distributing pornagrphy on a school computer during school hours?
Really????

WOW!!!!

Lawyers do the same thing. A union has to represent a member that paid the dues even though you don't agree with him. A payment of dues represents a contract to be an advocate for that member. A union does not have the right to pick and choose. A union has to pony up regardless or get sued for breach of contract. The union did what it was obligated to do.

If you note , an arbitrator awarded the judgement to the teacher so there may have been something in the district's case that didn't pass muster. The story gives no detail about the arbitrator's ruling, but my guess would be some defect of process as laid out in the Enterprise Wire decision. The Enterprise Wire decision is the boiler plate that spells out in detail procedures that must be followed in firing an employee.

One further point, the union and the board both agreed to take the matter to arbitration. It is a less costly alternative to court. By agreeing to take it to an arbitrator, you also agree to put the matter and the power in the hands of the arbiter. Both parties have to agree on the selection of a neutral party to act as an arbitrator. The parties then agree to abide by the arbitrator,s decision and to forgo further action. The arbiter required to decide which party's case has the most merit. He must decide totally with one case or the other --he can not "split the baby" in his decision. By going to arbitrationr, both sides agreed to put all the power in the arbitrator's hands, so now the school board does not have the power to dismiss this employee. Courts are loath to overturn decisions by arbitration. Sometimes you go to arbitration and get what you want and sometimes you don't .